Through Calm Waters
by feithecontact
Summary: Another girl finds her way into Gaea, but the world is strangely different from the one Hitomi left behind. How long has it been here in Gaea? A humanoid panther named Krolan and a young prince named Terahn find themselves caught up in the events surround
1. Prologue: The Sound of the Bell

_What are these...?  
  
Dreams and visions.  
  
What is the difference?  
  
The difference is belief.  
  
Which is this?  
  
This is what was meant to be._  
  
* * *  
  
**The Vision of Escaflowne:  
Through Calm Waters**  
By Dan Riley  
  
Prologue:  
The Sound of the Bell  
  
* * *  
  
_Was it just a dream?  
  
I can't be sure.  
  
I never used to believe in this stuff, and yet...  
  
It was so real._  
  
* * *  
  
Kanomi glanced up at the sound of the school bell's tolling, absently brushing a few  
errant strands of her blue hair behind her ear as the wind tugged playfully at them.  
She stood up from her position kneeling in the grass by the pond, brushing her skirt  
with her hand to dislodge any grass that had caught on it.  
  
Before her, the quaint little school pond lay quiescent, disturbed by little ripples,  
marred by the activities of wind and insects. Kanomi sighed as she adjusted the  
straps of her backpack, shifting it slightly. She bent over to pick up her sketchbook  
and pencil from where they lay on the ground. She had been drawing an interesting  
old tree on the other side of the pond. Its complicated gnarls and twists had puzzled  
her for some time, and she had finally decided to tackle drawing it.  
  
"Come on, Kanomi! Lunch is over and you're gonna be late!" Her friend Mari called to  
her from over at the cluster of lunch tables. Kanomi waved and headed  
over.  
  
"Hey, Kanomi. You looked like you were pretty into that drawing." Mari grinned at  
her friend, knowing how absorbed she could become in her sketching.  
  
Kanomi smiled back. "Yeah, that tree's really tough to draw. Somehow the twists  
don't seem to meet right, like... I don't know, it's hard to describe." Kanomi frowned  
and shook her head. "I sound like my Mom."  
  
Mari laughed as she gathered up her books and the two started heading towards the  
school building. "You're more like her than you're willing to admit."  
  
"Like her? No way." The two joked amiably as they walked. "I've told you before, I  
didn't inherit all of that mystic junk from her."  
  
"I know, I know. I was just joking!" Mari poked her in the ribs. "Being a little  
defensive, aren't we?"  
  
Kanomi just shook her head, laughing softly at her friend's repeated jibes.  
  
Then the sky went black.  
  
Not a normal black, like nighttime black. An utter, absolute black, like nothing  
Kanomi had ever experienced. And with it a chill feeling of despair, as though the air  
were being squeezed from her lungs.  
  
She tried to look around, but her vision was obscured by the void around her. Then  
Kanomi felt, rather than saw, a shape loom before her. It was huge and awful and  
cold and powerful, and she felt its scrutiny upon her like the weight of a giant  
boulder. She thought she cried out, but couldn't be sure because no sound came,  
and then she fell.  
  
As she fell, images flashed before her, too many to remember. But a few imprinted  
themselves indelibly into her memory.  
  
_A cat-man with midnight skin and glowing yellow eyes.  
  
A giant machine with a sword, which was somehow also a dragon.  
  
A man with long silver hair, silhouetted before the sun as he floated on outspread  
wings.  
  
A pendant of crystal on a cord, hanging from a wooden cross._  
  
And then that horrible, choking entity, and the encroaching black.  
  
* * *  
  
Kanomi woke in the nurse's room.  
  
She blinked slowly awake to find Mari hovering worriedly at her bedside. As Kanomi  
sat up slowly, Mari grinned with relief.  
  
"Jeez, Kanomi. You had me worried for a minute there. What the heck happened? All  
of a sudden you went all still; then you yelled, and kind of tripped. You fainted  
before you hit the ground... gave yourself a little bump on the forehead."  
  
Kanomi rubbed her forehead as she sat up, wincing as her fingers encountered the  
bruise her friend had mentioned. "Ow..."  
  
"So what happened?" Mari appeared equal parts concern and curiosity.  
  
She frowned. "I don't know. I saw... I don't know."  
  
Mari frowned slightly, a wrinkle creasing her brow. "Well, do you think you're  
okay?"  
  
Kanomi swung her legs over the side of the small cot, standing experimentally. Her  
legs held. "Yeah, I guess so. So what happened after I blacked out?"  
  
Mari grinned slightly. "Well, I was scared, so I kinda screamed. So guess who came  
over and helped me take you here?"  
  
Kanomi wasn't in the mood for playing games with her friend at the moment. The  
strange... vision, or whatever it was, had left her shaken. And she had a splitting  
headache. "I don't know... who?"  
  
Mari's grin tripled in size; something Kanomi wouldn't have thought possible if she  
hadn't seen it. "Makoto-kun. Hyuga Makoto practically carried you in  
here!"  
  
Kanomi felt her jaw drop, despite the odd disquiet her episode had left in her.  
"Really? Makoto-kun?"  
  
Mari nodded, her eyes sparkling.  
  
Just then, the nurse came over. She was a nosy old woman who liked gossiping about  
the students who required her care, so the two friends shut up the moment she  
approached. "Are you alright, young lady?"  
  
Kanomi nodded respectfully. "Yes ma'am. I'm fine now."  
  
The nurse nodded. "Well, then you two had better be off for class then."  
  
"Yes ma'am."  
  
* * *  
  
Kanomi sighed as she looked wistfully out the window at the pond outside. She  
couldn't concentrate on her classes after the weird... whatever it was. At least there  
was only another half hour left.  
  
She looked down, and noticed that with her pencil she was idly sketching a rough  
drawing on the surface of the desk. It was a drawing of the pond, and the twisted  
tree.  
  
Quickly she stopped, glancing furtively around to ensure that the teacher had not  
noted her defacing of school property. Once she was sure she was safe, Kanomi  
began to rub out the lines of graphite with her palm. The image smeared, faded, and  
gradually disappeared under her ministrations. Kanomi spent a moment staring at  
her face, reflected back to her from the now-clean surface of the desk.  
  
The bell rang, a stark electronic buzz that broke the quiet of the classroom with an  
astounding prolonged bzzt.  
  
"All stand. Bow. Dismissed."  
  
The old ritual was comfortable in its familiarity. The students filed out of the  
classroom, a conversational buzz filling the silence after the noise of the ending-class  
bell.  
  
Mari said goodbye to Kanomi as she left the class, and Kanomi responded  
automatically. She didn't notice the worried glance the other girl shot at  
her.  
  
_Why was I drawing that tree?_  
  
She had started drawing without realizing it before, but the thing that was odd was  
the quality of the sketch she had made. In fact, it had been better than the one that  
was in her sketchbook. It had been one of those rare drawings that really captured  
the feel of the scene; now that she thought about it, having to erase it made her a  
little sad.  
  
She made her way slowly out of the classroom, her mind not really occupied with  
where she was going. It had been a very odd day, with the combination of the...  
episode... and the drawing. When she finally came back to herself, she found that she  
was standing outside at the edge of the pond.  
  
Kanomi glanced at her watch, and saw that she still had a few hours before she was  
expected home. Deciding that she really had nothing better to do, she settled down  
on the grass with her sketchbook and began to work on her earlier  
drawing.  
  
After almost an hour, Kanomi sighed with frustration and set down her pad and  
pencil. It wasn't so much that her sketch was coming out badly - in fact, it was one  
of her better ones - but that it was nowhere near as good as the one she had begun  
without knowing it.  
  
"Guess I've got some kind of unconscious talent, or something," she muttered to  
herself.  
  
The school bell rang behind her, noting the passing of the hour.  
  
As the bell sounded, a rushing wave of silence enveloped the pond. It was not an  
ordinary sort of silence, which is a fragile thing, broken by the slightest whisper. It  
was a silence stronger than sound, which overpowered all noise and movement, and  
forced everything to calm.  
  
In an instant, the wind was gone.  
  
Even the ripples spreading across the surface of the pond disappeared, leaving it  
eerily smooth, like a perfect sheet of glass.  
  
Everything was utterly calm.  
  
And Kanomi felt herself falling towards the water as consciousness slipped from her  
grasp.  
  
End **Through Calm Waters** Prologue.


	2. Part One: The Gateway Opens

_What are these...?  
  
Dreams and visions.  
  
What is the difference?  
  
The difference is belief.  
  
Which is this?  
  
This is what you want it to be._  
  
* * *  
  
**The Vision of Escaflowne:  
Through Calm Waters**  
  
By Dan Riley  
  
Part 1:  
The Gateway Opens  
  
* * *  
  
_Was it just a dream?  
  
I can't be sure.  
  
I never used to believe in this stuff, and yet...  
  
It was so real._  
  
* * *  
  
Krolan D'vor stalked restlessly through the starlit forest. His shining yellow eyes saw  
perfectly in the dimness which suited him as well as daylight.  
  
The shaman had told him that something was going to happen. Something  
important, and soon.  
  
When he had gone to the old wise woman with descriptions of the vague dreams  
which had troubled his sleep for over a week, he had feared her ridicule. However,  
she had taken him very seriously. Perhaps even too seriously. Krolan was sure that  
the shaman believed more firmly in the portents of his dreams than he himself did.  
  
_"A gateway will soon be opened, and the portents of your dream be made flesh.  
Beware the dawn of the Mystic Moon and the unseen giants which come again. Fate  
is coming to a turning point, and I think that which way the pendulum swings  
depends in part on you, young one."_ That was what she had said to him.  
  
He caressed the hilt of his longtooth knife, and frowned slightly. Dreams? Feh. What  
use had he for such nonsense?  
  
The dark-furred pantherman slid silently through the forest. The trees seemed to  
part around him like somber sentinels of the night. The calls of night birds, rustling  
of nocturnal animals, and quiet buzz of insects filled the air. The sweet fragrance of  
the forest surrounded him.  
  
Krolan had always enjoyed the forest more at night.  
  
* * *  
  
"Sir! We have detected a Fate anomaly somewhere in Gaea."  
  
"Well, what is it?"  
  
"We can't be sure, sir. The slight distortion we noticed three days ago has just  
spiked. It's like nothing we've ever detected before."  
  
"Can you pinpoint its location?"  
  
"We're trying sir, but its signal is erratic and difficult to locate. It will take another  
fourteen hours to get a ten-mile radius lock."  
  
"Let's just hope it lasts that long."  
  
* * *  
  
The sun broke over the horizon of the Eternya Forest with a dazzling display of light  
on the emerald-green canopy of the vast woods. The joyous cry of morning birds  
met the first rays of the sun in salutation.  
  
Krolan D'vor growled angrily at the rising orb, rubbing at his bleary eyes. He had  
gotten hardly any sleep at all the night before; every time he dozed off, he was  
startled awake a moment later by a sudden start of vague dread. He was starting to  
believe in the hocus pocus of the old wise woman.  
  
Growling, he stood up, tossing his blanket aside with an angry motion. He stalked  
out of his tent.  
  
The village was already mostly awake around him. The rest of his people had risen  
before the sun, as he himself usually did.  
  
_Curse those dreams!_  
  
"Hey, Krolan! Where are you going this fine morning? And so late!"  
  
Krolan growled at his jeering neighbor. "Nowhere that concerns you, Gareka. Now  
perhaps if you kept your mouth closed, do you suppose you would catch less flies?"  
  
Gareka grimaced and quieted, turning back to the arrows he was fletching, and  
Krolan grinned as he loped past the boundaries of the village, and into the Forest.  
  
_I feel a need for the hunt._  
  
He caressed the hilt of his knife in anticipation.  
  
* * *  
  
Malark watched the lazy ripples on the surface of the pool with interest.  
  
_Something of much import draws near. Wait and see, wait and see..._  
  
His long, bony fingers grasped the three carved stones, and he tossed them into the  
pool with a jerk of his thin arm. They slipped into the water quietly, their small  
splashes disturbing the ripples and beginning a new pattern.  
  
Malark watched the new set of tiny waves intently, and smiled.  
  
_The sign of the Illusory Moon... It has been a while since that particular heavenly  
body has so effected the destiny of Gaea._  
  
* * *  
  
Krolan grunted as he lifted the heavy body of the duhrm up onto his shoulders. A  
good catch. The duhrm were strong, fast, and crafty, and their sharp claws  
presented quite a danger to any who chose to hunt them. They were Krolan's  
specialty.  
  
Settling the body more comfortably onto his shoulder, the pantherman set out to  
return to his village. The Festival of the Moon was that night, and the duhrm would  
be a welcome addition to the foods to be served.  
  
* * *  
  
Terahn gripped the leather of the hilt tightly, absently wiping a bit of perspiration  
away from his brow. He held the practice sword at a low forward angle from his  
body, just as he had been taught. His opponent feinted in, towards his right.  
  
Terahn spun to his right, evading the true second attack - a vicious strike at his left  
arm, meant to disarm him. Continuing the spin, the young man ended with a cut  
that left the wooden edge of his practice sword resting gently against his opponent's  
neck.  
  
The two stood frozen for a second, the scent of dust filling the crude arena. Yellow  
dirt, stirred from the movements of the fight, drifted on the air.  
  
The grizzled old veteran smiled, eyeing the wooden blade against his throat. "Aye,  
that's th' way to do it, milord."  
  
Terahn pulled his blade away, sheathing it in a quick smooth motion. "You're getting  
slow, Gar. Pretty soon I'll have to find a new sparring partner." He smiled at his old  
friend and teacher.  
  
Gar shook his head. "Ye've got a mighty talent with the sword, lad. Young as ye are,  
there's few swordsmen in the realm I'd bet on against ye in a fair fight."  
  
Terahn grinned. "Thanks Gar. I'm thirsty; why don't you come inside and have a  
drink with me?" The young boy turned away and started into the fort.  
  
Without warning, Terahn's feet were taken out from under him, and he found himself  
on his back, the breath exploding from his lungs in a rush, and the point of a wooden  
practice sword hovering an inch above his chest.  
  
"But not every fight ye fight in will be a fair one." Gar winked from his position over  
the boy.  
  
Terahn groaned. "Gar... come on, help me up."  
  
The old soldier extended his hand to the boy, who stood up.  
  
"I hope ye see my point, lad." Gar said as they walked amiably through the stone  
arches and into the fortress.  
  
"Of course I do. Sorry for letting my guard down."  
  
"'Tis no fault of yours. Every young lad falls for that one."  
  
"Just goes to show, age and craftiness will always defeat youth and skill! Isn't that  
right, Gar?"  
  
Gar and Terahn turned at the voice calling from the arena's gate. A tall, blonde-  
haired man stood there, stripping off his leather Guymelef suit.  
  
"Father!" Terahn called out, hurrying to meet him. Gar followed behind.  
  
"Good to see ye, milord Falkon. The battle went well?" The grizzled old soldier  
stopped about a costa away, watching the father and son embrace warmly.  
  
"Yes, it went well. The Gnorns have been pushed back all the way to the mountains.  
For now, at least. So Terahn, how was practice?"  
  
The boy frowned slightly. "Gar caught me off guard. If it had been a real fight, I'd be  
dead."  
  
The grizzled soldier smiled warmly. "Well now, lad, ye didn't do all that bad. If it had  
been a true battle, ye most likely would not have stopped th' blade before nicking  
my pretty gullet."  
  
Falkon laughed softly. "He caught you, did he Gar? Are you getting old, or is my son  
a swordsman?"  
  
Gar laughed at that. "Well, old I am, but th' soldiers can attest to my remaining skill  
with a blade. Your son is indeed a swordsman."  
  
"That is good." The tall lord turned to look at his son. "Let's all go inside and have  
something to eat. The battle has left me hungry."  
  
Terahn nodded, and the three went inside.  
  
* * *  
  
Soft, trilling music filled the air of the pantherman village, carried on the soft evening  
breeze. The Festival of the Moon was a time of strange opposites for the village.  
Although the Illusory Moon was an object to be feared - as the legends told that it  
would eventually cause the destruction of all Gaea - it was supposed to be the  
celebration of a time in the distant past when a traveler from the Illusory Moon had  
saved Gaea. The shamans always tried to get the people to soberly reflect upon the  
twist of Fate that allowed their own lives to exist, but the people simply took the  
opportunity to enjoy themselves.  
  
Krolan took a bite out of his chunk of the duhrm he had caught, savoring the meat  
as he chewed and swallowed. He had always enjoyed the Festival of the Moon, and  
the celebration was pushing to the back of his mind the vague anxiety that had been  
plaguing him. Even his troubling dreams were forgotten in the glow of the bonfires.  
  
The children scampered about playing, many of them waving about straw dolls that  
represented the woman from the Illusory Moon. Others had sticks for swords, and  
pretended to be the giant metal monsters that the Moon-girl vanquished.  
  
Smiling at the particularly energetic antics of a small group of children, Krolan closed  
his eyes for a moment and rested in the warm peace of the evening.  
  
_He opened his eyes with a start.  
  
The village was quiet, and the Illusory Moon was almost finished with its journey  
through the night sky. The bonfires which had burned brightly earlier were reduced  
to glowing red coals_  
  
. I must have fallen asleep...  
  
_It hadn't felt like he'd been asleep long. And there was an odd feeling of tension in  
the air. He stood up, wavering indecisively between heading to his bed and checking  
the village to make sure everyone was alright. He was half-afraid that the rest would  
be gone, or dead, and half-afraid that they'd ridicule him for worrying foolishly.  
  
Despite that, he settled on checking. Uneasiness filled him, and he recalled his  
dreams and apprehensions of the past weeks.  
  
As he walked towards the village center, looking about cautiously for signs either of  
the other villagers or of some sort of danger, a dark shadow passed overhead,  
encompassing all of the village.  
  
Looking up, he just caught the shape of something silhouetted against the Illusory  
Moon as it flew swiftly through the air. The odd shape reminded him of tales he had  
heard of dragons as a young boy.  
  
Shivering in the odd chill that had suddenly descended over the area, Krolan hurried  
towards the small mound of darkness that was the shaman's hut.  
  
He brushed aside the hanging strings of beads which filled the doorway, and waited  
for his eyes to adjust to the darkness.  
  
From the recesses of the hut, a dark shape watched him with eyes of blazing red. It  
was definitely not the old wise woman.  
  
"The gateway opens... prepare thyself. The testing will soon occur, and after that the  
destruction. Then the final question will be answered."  
  
Krolan shivered and took a step backwards. Something about that voice... called to  
the deeper instincts of fear ingrained deep into his bones and blood.  
  
"Prepare thyself..."  
  
The dark shape reached towards him, and Krolan screamed._  
  
"Ho, Krolan! What's the matter?" Krolan opened his eyes to Gareka peering down at  
him in concern.  
  
Confused, the pantherman glanced around him. The bonfires still blazed, the music  
still filled the air, and the people of the village still celebrated. It had been just  
another strange dream.  
  
"Hey, I asked you if you're alright."  
  
Krolan shook the other mans hand off his shoulder. "I'm fine. Sorry about that, I had  
a bad dream."  
  
Gareka grinned. "Nightmares still make you scream, eh?"  
  
Krolan growled. "Go away Gareka. I'm grateful for your concern, but I'm fine."  
  
The other pantherman shrugged. "Alright. Have it your way. See you later, Krolan."  
  
Krolan nodded, shifting his shoulders and feeling his spine crack. The log he had  
fallen asleep on had been a particularly uncomfortable one.  
  
The peace of the evening was broken by the odd vision. Krolan glanced around a bit  
anxiously, the festivities taking on more the feel of the calm before the storm.  
  
"Krolan D'vor."  
  
He turned at the sound of his name. The shaman stood beckoning at the entrance to  
her hut. As soon as Krolan noticed her standing there, the old wise woman turned  
and entered her dwelling.  
  
Frowning, Krolan got up and went after her.  
  
The beads clinked aside with a slight noise as he entered. His spine tingled with a bit  
of apprehension as he remembered his most recent dream. The entrance room of the  
hut was where the old woman met visitors; where she gave her advice and cast her  
spells. There were two other rooms, both with doorways hung with beads leading to  
them, but Krolan had never been inside either of them.  
  
The shaman sat watching him from her cushion in the back of the room. Her furred  
legs were crossed, and her old feline face regarded him calmly.  
  
"Welcome, Krolan D'vor. Please, sit."  
  
The pantherman complied, seating himself on one of the cushions. He watched the  
shaman's face, waiting for her to continue.  
  
"You have had another vision," she went on after a moment. "My most recent  
foretelling," she waved her hand at the small jumble of carved bones in the corner of  
the room that she used for her divining, "has indicated that the event you have been  
waiting for is about to happen. This very night." She waited to gauge his reaction.  
  
Krolan frowned slightly, digesting this new information. He was ready to believe  
whatever hocus pocus the old woman threw at him at that point. "You're sure it's  
tonight?"  
  
"Yes. The Illusory Moon is aligned with the Red Star; the time foretold is coming.  
Soon, the gateway will open, and another traveler will be brought to Gaea." The  
shaman lowered her face, looking directly into Krolan's eyes. "You have a part to  
play in the fork in the road of Destiny that is approaching."  
  
Krolan sighed. "Why me?"  
  
"I don't know." The shaman shook her head. "But that was definite in my foretelling.  
Now, there is something you must do."  
  
"What's that?"  
  
"You must go to the Forest Monolith and wait there for the gateway to open."  
  
"Just go there and wait?"  
  
"Yes. From then on, things will happen as they must."  
  
Krolan glanced back at the hanging beads that obscured the exit from the hut.  
"Should I leave now?"  
  
The shaman nodded. "Yes. Hurry."  
  
The pantherman stood. "Alright." With that, he left. As he approached the edge of  
the village, Gareka came up to him.  
  
The other pantherman waved to Krolan as he approached. "Hey. I saw you go into  
the shaman's hut. Anything important going on?" He fell into step alongside Krolan,  
gazing at one of the bonfires as they walked.  
  
Krolan sighed. "Nothing that concerns you. Why don't you go back to celebrating?  
I've got something to do."  
  
Gareka nodded, looking at Krolan. "Alright. See you later, then."  
  
"Yes, later." The pantherman continued on his way to the edge of the village as  
Gareka stopped.  
  
"Oh, by the way Krolan!"  
  
He turned. "What is it?"  
  
"You could work on your interaction." With that, Gareka turned and walked back into  
the village center.  
  
Shaking his head, Krolan went out into the forest.  
  
* * *  
  
"Sir, we've got a lock on it! The disturbance is centering around that huge stone  
pillar in the middle of Eternya Forest."  
  
"Well, about time. We're lucky the disturbance lasted this long. Send a team to  
investigate."  
  
"Yes, sir."  
  
* * *  
  
The Forest Monolith stood tall in front of him, rising above the lush green canopy of  
Eternya Forest. The cool breeze which ruffled through the leaves stirred Krolan's fur  
as he stood gazing at the giant column of rock.  
  
_Well, I'm here. Guess now's the waiting part._  
  
The pantherman settled down on a small rock.  
  
He didn't have long to wait.  
  
A brilliant flare of blue energy split the night air, dazzling him and forcing him to  
shade his eyes. With a soft sizzling sound, a glowing doorway opened low on the face  
of the Forest Monolith.  
  
Through squinted eyes, Krolan saw that the doorway was a mirror-like surface which  
reflected its surroundings perfectly - including himself.  
  
As he watched, a shape fell forward out of the portal, falling a short distance to land  
limp on the ground. As she had passed through the surface, it had rippled like water.  
  
Krolan hurried forward to the limp shape as the door closed on itself with another  
bright flare of blue. The soft toll of a bell met his ears as he knelt on the ground and  
turned the form over onto its back.  
  
It was a slim human girl. An _unconscious_ human girl. Her shoulder-length blue hair  
framed her face in the semidarkness. Krolan checked her pulse to make sure she  
was alive, then glanced around.  
  
_Looks like I'll have to carry her back to the village. If she's what all this fuss has  
been about, I can't help thinking she's a bit less than I expected._  
  
Just as he stood up with the girl slung over his back, he heard a loud crash echo  
through the forest, and rocked back, slightly out of balance, as the ground shook. A  
large depression had just appeared in the ground a few costa away.  
  
"What in the hell...?"  
  
Another depression appeared, a few costa behind the first, again shaking the earth.  
Then a third.  
  
_Guess I thought too soon..._  
  
A ripple in the air above one of the depressions parted into nothingness, revealing a  
huge red metal shoulder and arm. The arm alone was larger than Krolan himself. The  
arm did not end in a hand, or anything resembling one. Instead, it simply widened  
into an oblong shape, terminating with three dark holes.  
  
The arm raised to point at Krolan, and a voice from the area of the ripple called out  
of nowhere.  
  
::Put the girl down and step away.:: The voice had a strange hollow sound to it, as  
though the speaker were talking through something. ::Resist and we will kill you.::  
  
_Kill me, hmm...?_  
  
Krolan glanced down at the girl in his arms. Her face was uneasy, and she trembled  
slightly.  
  
"Invisible giants..." she moaned softly.  
  
Krolan turned his gaze back to the huge metal arm. "Invisible giants, eh?"  
  
* * *  
  
Malark smiled softly at the pool in front of him, his long bony fingers folded in his  
lap.  
  
"The gateway has opened."  
  
End **Through Calm Waters** Chapter 1.


End file.
